<\/p>\n
A same-sex\u00a0couple in Canada has filed a lawsuit against a surrogate mother who refused to abort the baby after doctors detected a cleft lip and a possible heart defect.<\/p>\n
Filed in the Ontario Supreme Court in May, the pair is claiming the surrogate did not keep them informed of the baby\u2019s health, which, they argue, put the preborn child at risk, caused them emotional distress, and violated their confidentiality, according to\u00a0a report from the National Post.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit came two years after the couple asked the woman to terminate the pregnancy at 22 weeks, a demand she declined.<\/p>\n
Both the mother and the surrogacy agency indicated the relationship between the surrogate and the couple deteriorated after the woman refused to abort the child.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when everything changed,\u201d said Sally Rhoads-Heinrich, owner of Surrogacy in Canada Online. \u201cThey wanted a termination. What I find most difficult in this is they are suing the woman who brought their son to them. How is their son going to feel someday if he learns that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The surrogate purportedly had a fine relationship with the couple prior to the abortion dispute. The baby was conceived via in vitro fertilization with a donor egg and sperm from each of the intended fathers. The couple, after learning through an ultrasound about a cleft lip and possible cleft palate or minor heart issue, requested an abortion.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering that medical tests indicate that the fetus has, or is likely to have, a genetic, chromosomal or other abnormality or defect, and in accordance with article 8.5 (a) of our surrogacy agreement \u2026 we want to inform you of our wish that the pregnancy be terminated,\u201d the gay couple wrote. \u201cAlthough very difficult, this decision is free and informed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman said she was \u201cdevastated\u201d by the request and admitted she would have considered terminating the pregnancy if the preborn baby was determined by doctors to have no realistic chance of surviving after birth. However, medical personnel at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto later determined the baby was otherwise very healthy with the possible cleft lip as the only significant finding.<\/p>\n
***Please sign up for\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>CBN Newsletters<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and download the\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>CBN News app<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n Ultimately, the couple accepted the surrogate mother\u2019s suggestion and agreed to move forward with the pregnancy. That, though, was not the end of the friction. The couple wanted a hospital birth over concerns there may be complications from the potential cleft lip. The surrogate, though, moved forward with a home birth monitored by midwives, as stipulated in the original contract.<\/p>\n The newborn did experience difficulty breathing at birth but recovered quickly after midwives administered oxygen and arranged ambulance transportation to the hospital.<\/p>\n After all was said and done, the surrogate mother sought repayment of about $10,000 for out-of-pocket expenses connected to the pregnancy and delivery, including lost income and missed pension contributions. While her complaint was first filed in small-claims court, her contract with the couple stated such disputes must go through arbitration.<\/p>\n At the same time, the couple filed a lawsuit for roughly $600,000 against the mother, a single woman. In their filing, the men claimed the surrogate failed \u201cto follow the direction regarding decisions affecting the fetus\u2019s medical care.\u201d The surrogate said she believes the couple rejected the child for not meeting their expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know I\u2019m a single mom, you know I have a daughter, and you\u2019re basically suing me for my house,\u201d she told the Post. \u201c[I]t\u2019s just awful. I just feel used. \u2026 They didn\u2019t get the perfect child they wanted and they threw me away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A same-sex\u00a0couple in Canada has filed a lawsuit against a surrogate mother who refused to abort the baby after doctors detected a cleft lip and a possible heart defect. Filed in the Ontario Supreme Court in May, the pair is claiming the surrogate did not keep them informed of the baby\u2019s health, which, they argue,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[7719,3064,2992,2905,1969,1032,5181,5823,1624,10119],"class_list":["post-30431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-abort","tag-baby","tag-birth","tag-couple","tag-defect","tag-minor","tag-refusing","tag-samesex","tag-sues","tag-surrogate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}